Serendipity : Musings of an Islander

Being born and brought up in rural South Andaman, passing alongside the fields of   Stewart   Gunj had been a regular feature during my first eight years of schooling at Govt Middle School Kanyapuram. The fields, apart from being the rice bowl of the area, the stunning greenery on both sides of the stretch of road ( kheti raasta ) passing amid the fields of   Stewart   Gunj used to be a visual treat. The   2004 Great   Sumatra-Andaman   Earthquake and the resultant tsunami however changed the landscape of the entire area forever. Sea water breached the British time sluice gate at   Kadakachang and flooded the fields rendering it unfit for cultivation. The present article traces this transformation of the erstwhile fields of   Stewart   Gunj into its present water logged avatar. Andaman and Nicobar Islands is considered an ecological paradise, endowed with lush green Tropical Evergreen Rainforest Ecosystem, Mangrove   Ecosy...

The Inconvenient Truth Life   under island conditions had been peaceful and content until the epic disaster christened the “Great   Sumatra-Andaman   Earthquake” rattled our islands on the   26 th   day of December 2004 at 6.29am  IST ; triggering a massive tsunami that washed away anything to everything coming its way. The multiple-disaster caught the islanders unawares, mostly in their sleep following the Merry Christmas celebrations. Before the “boxing day” nobody had the slightest idea that the sea, amid which they had been leading their life, could threaten their very existence. The disaster turned out to be a learning experience for majority of islanders who got to know the word   tsunami ,   though sounds   Indian to our ears, is in-fact a word of   Japanese origin; meaning giant harbor waves generated by undersea tectonic or volcanic activity. The   2004   slow slip undersea earthquake incidentally shif...